Missionaries serving with Youth With a Mission

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Doing things right

In the past week, I’ve been so encouraged by 2 different girls, who’ve shown me that we’re doing things right. Our goal is that kids at the center feel loved and safe, and that in the loving and safe environment, we can nurture their relationship with God. But we can’t always measure how loved they feel. In fact, we can be as loving as possible, and its up to the child to be able to receive the love, care, and kindness we give. Last week, however, I overheard as song that one of our 8 year olds was singing to herself. It went like this:

“Oooooh, I’m so loved, I’m so special! My aftercare (thats us) tells me that all the tiiiiiiiime. They say God loves me, and I know thats true. Ooooooooooh I’m so special, I can do anything, I’m smart and I’m good at lots of things. And I’m beautiful tooooooooooooo”

My heart just about melted. Ahhhh. It feels so good to know we’re doing things right- to know that they do hear the message we show with our actions.

The other girl who encouraged me is 7 years old and told me this:

Guess what Mama K?! (thats what some kids call me) I was with you all last night! In myyyyy….DREAM! It was the best night ever! You were my mom, and Teacher Isaac was my dad, and Makeyla was my sister. And we went out to eat, and then we went home, and Teacher Isaac was playing with me and Makeyla, and then we took baths and you told us how much you loved us and put us to bed. Then when I woke up from my dream, I felt so happy.

We have hard moments at our center. But we have lots of beautiful moments too. Moments that shows us the huge difference we are making in their lives. And when God gives us those moments of showing us how much we mean to the kids we serve, it makes the sacrifice of living on the other side of the world worth it.